This invention relates to methods for the treatment of infectious gastrointestinal disorders in humans and other animals.
Factors adversely affecting the function of the gastrointestinal system in humans are exceedingly varied in their nature. Such disorders may arise in the upper or lower gastrointestinal tracts or both. There is a broad range of causes of gastrointestinal disorders, including genetic, physiological, environmental, and psychogenic factors. Accordingly, the diagnosis and management of these disorders can be exceptionally difficult. A detailed discussion of gastrointestinal tract functions, disorders, causes, and treatments can be found in Spiro, Clinical Gastroenterology (3d. edition 1983).
Among the chronic disorders of the upper gastrointestinal tract are those which fall under the general categories of gastritis and peptic ulcer disease. (The upper gastrointestinal tract is generally defined as including the esophagus, the stomach, the duodenum, the jejunum, and ilium.) Gastritis is, by definition, typified by an inflammation of the stomach mucosa. In practice, though, the disorder is manifested by a broad range of poorly defined, and heretofore inadequately treated, symptoms such as indigestion, "heart burn", dyspepsia and excessive eructation. A general discussion of gastritis appears in B. J. Marshall and J. R. Warren, "Unidentified Curved Bacilli in the Stomach of Patients with Gastritis and Peptic Ulceration", The Lancet, 1311-1315 (1984), and in R. Greenlaw, et al., "Gastroduodenitis, A Broader Concept of Peptic Ulcer Disease", 25 Digestive Diseases and Sciences 660-672 (1980).
Peptic ulcers are lesions of the gastrointestinal tract lining, characterized by loss of tissue due to the action of digestive acids and pepsin. It has been generally held that peptic ulcers are caused either by gastric hypersecretion, or (more often) by decreased resistance of the gastric lining to digestive acids and pepsin. The medical literature is replete with methods for treating ulcers, including modification of the diet, surgical removal of the lesions w and the use of drugs. Such drugs include: antacids, which serve to counteract excess gastric secretions; anticholinergics, which reduce acid secretion; H antagonists, which also block the release of gastric acids; prostaglandins, which increase the resistance of the gastric lining to digestive fluids, and may also inhibit acid secretion; prokinetic agents, which enhance gastrointestinal tract motility; and compositions which form protective barriers over gastric lesions. Prescription and non-prescription drug therapies are generally described in Garnet, "Antacid Products", Handbook of Non-prescription Drugs, Chapter 3 (7th edition, 1982). One group of drugs which are thought to be effective due to coating of ulcer sites and forming protective barriers is the bismuth-containing drugs. See, for example, Koo, et al., "Selective Coating of Gastric Ulcers by Tripotassium Dicitrato Bismuthate in the Rat", 82 Gastroenterology 864-870 (1982).
Regardless of the particular drug composition used in treating gastrointestinal disorders, such as peptic ulcer disease, the treatment is often imprecise and incomplete. Actual "cures", i.e., successful treatment resulting in total remission of disease, are very often not effected. See, A. J. McLean, et al., "Cyto-protective Agents and Ulcer Relapse", 142 The Medical Journal of Australia, Special Supplement 525-528 (1985). Furthermore, many conventional treatments may render subjects hypochlorhydric (i.e., with low levels of hydrochloric acid in the stomach) which may predispose them to other disorders, e.g., gastrointestinal infection, halitosis, and gastric carcinomas.
It has now been discovered that certain methods of treatment, involving the administration of bismuth, are effective for the treatment of infectious upper-gastrointestinal disorders. In particular, as compared to treatment regimens known in the art, these methods cure, or afford lower relapse rates of, gastritis and peptic ulcer disease. These methods also afford other benefits in the treatment and management of subjects having gastrointestinal diseases, such as in not rendering subjects hypochlorhydric.